The Mission of our site is to provide information on collecting cars to make you a more informed and happier collector. It is important for a car collector to enjoy their muscle cars, sports cars, hot rods or rat rods in a way that makes them happy, We will bring you the stories behind the owners and the cars. The stories about how the collector cars were acquired, about the breakdowns, about the special trips and especially about the people encountered along the way.

Smokey Yunick; the Legend and the Stories; Best Damn Garage in Town

Henry “Smokey” Yunick, one of auto racing’s most brilliant mechanics and innovators, died in 2001 at the age of 77. He was born in Neshaminy, Pa., and settled in Daytona Beach Florida in 1946 after serving as an Air force bomber pilot in World War II. In 1947, he opened an automobile repair shop on Beach Street he dubbed “The Best Damn Garage In Town.”
He closed the garage to the public in the mid-1980s but continued work on his research and development projects. Yunick quickly became a major player in the racing community boasting several big victories on the old beach-road course before winning both the Daytona 500 as a car owner and the Indianapolis 500 as a mechanic.
His black Pontiacs with gold trim twice claimed the Daytona 500, with Marvin Panch in 1961 and Daytona native Fireball Roberts in ’62. Yunick’s cars won four of the first eight Winston Cup races at Daytona International Speedway. Yunick was the chief mechanic for Herb Thomas, who won Winston Cup championships in 1951 and ’53.

Yunick was especially fond of bending the NASCAR rule book. In 1968 during Speed Weeks, NASCAR officials pulled the gas tank out of his Pontiac after they thought his car was getting excessive fuel mileage. After passing a rigid inspection, Yunick got in the car– with the gas tank lying on the ground — fired it up and drove back to his space in the garage area, leaving NASCAR inspectors dumbfounded.
The gas tank was the right size but he made the fuel line so it held a couple of gallons of gas. So he was able to drive away without the gas tank. I don’t want to say he didn’t step outside the lines, but he was really smart about those things.”

His open-wheel creations made 10 appearances at the famed Brickyard between 1958 and 1975. He won the Indy 500 in 1960 with Jim Rathmann. In 1959 he brought a car with the engine turned upside down. He called it the Reverse Torque Special. The car finished seventh. In 1964 he showed up at Indy with the strangest machine ever to turn laps at the 2.5-mile track. It was his “sidesaddle” car wheeled by Bobby Johns. “The whole car was built out of backyard kind of stuff,” said Yunick.

Yunick stopped fielding a Winston Cup entry in 1970 after a heated argument with NASCAR founder Bill France Sr. Even though the two racing giants lived in the same town, they hardly spoke to each other for the next 20 years.
Yunick had no formal education but was considered one of the top minds in automobile engine design. He helped develop Chevrolets original small-block engine in 1955. The basic blueprints of that design are still used in racing to this day. He also did research and development on hydraulics, fuel intakes and engine mileage. He built an engine in the 1970’s that he boasted could go nearly 100 miles on a gallon of regular gasoline. He also was interested in creating other gadgets. During the energy crisis in the mid 1970s, he built a windmill and solar panel over his shop hoping to generate enough electricity to power his business.

He penned numerous magazine articles during his long career. He had the ear of Detroit’s automakers and even found time to do some consulting work for NASA.

Yunick was in the first group of 20 men inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame in 1990.

Very soon we will be bringing you more details on several of the large variety of cars built by Smokey over the years. Below are three race cars built by Smokey. We will soon have more photos and lots of details on these cars.

Comments (6)

Growing up in Indy and spending many years at The Indianapolis Motor Speedway I had a great fondness for Smokey and his innovations. What a great man he was and was always happy to talk to most. He was way ahead of his time and he will be missed by many. His shop was a sight to see and only Smokey knew where every single thing was. I miss him
Danny “The Mad Hungarian” Seybold
TMH PHOTO WORX

Just found your website and was reading about Smokey Yunick. I have been a historian on him since 1966 when I met him. Reading your article, it wasn’t a Pontiac in’68 that he drove back to his shop with no gas tank, that was the famous Chevelle that Nascar would not let race.

To honor Smokey, I restored my little 72 Chevy P.U. as a tribute to him. Pics can be seen on 67-72chevytrucks.com, search Ed Fiveash.

I met Smokey while at college in Daytona (at ERAU). We (my room mate and I) were always building some form of Hot Rod and when failures resulted, he was there to help us out. From machining and hardening parts to deal with outrageous camshaft lift, to the construction of homemade gas turbine engines. We struggled with “store bought” hot rod parts that did not work as advertised. He always had good advice and would take the time to make sure we got it right. Also, there was always some “secret” project in his shop and eventually, he would give in and show us. What fun! I clearly understood his description of the adiabatic engine, so he spent some time showing us. We even got a short demo.

Henry “Smokey” Yunick, Has been my inspiration through out my forty plus years as a motor mechanic, I never got to meet this great man and missed my last chance when he came to Britain`s Goodwood Festival of Speed, I understand his adiabatic engine theory and would love to have chatted over a couple of pints and a pipe full of backy, now his famous garage is no more I wont get to see that either how sad, in my book he was the best mechanic/innovater of our time,
God Bless

First off, Smokey did not drive the car back with no fuel tank in the ’66 Chevelle, just had an issue getting someone to get fuel for it before he drove it back to the shop. (May have “borrowed” some) That whole deal with no tank was a legend (Smokey’s own words). He did drive it back through Daytona & when someone said that they remembered him at a stoplight in it, he said that it “must’ve been the only one I stopped at”.